International rankings

International rankings

The University of Montpellier holds a leading position in the world’s top rankings thanks to the positive dynamics instilled by obtaining the I-SITE MUSE.

Top university in the world in Shanghai’s ranking in ecology, first in France in Reuters’ ranking of the most innovative universities, and 5th in Leiden’s ranking which assesses the quality of scientific publications. In the CWUR ranking which evaluates 18,000 universities worldwide, the University of Montpellier has made a spectacular progression from 197th to 141st place worldwide.

Shanghai ranking: the UM in the Top 300, holding the 1st place in ecology

The Shanghai annual ranking is published by Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China. It has become one of the most anticipated rankings in the academic world.

This year again, the University of Montpellier made it in the Top 300 of the world’s best universities.

Reuters ranks the UM as the 1st French university

This ranking classifies the world’s 100 most innovative universities that that make the greatest efforts to advance science, invent new technologies and help support the growth of the global economy. Unlike other rankings which are often based in whole or in part on subjective surveys, Reuters exclusively relies on empirical data such as patent filings and citations of research publications.

In 2018, the University of Montpellier reached the 1st place in France, the 16th in Europe and 55th in the world.

Leiden ranking

Since 2007, the Center for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) of the University of Leiden (Netherlands) has been developing a ranking of universities on the basis of bibliometric indicators. More than 900 universities from 55 countries are ranked in Leiden’s 2018 ranking based on publications referenced in Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science database. The selected universities all have at least 1,000 scientific publications to their credit over the “2013-2016” period.

The indicators used for this ranking are diversified: number of publications, their impact according to the number of their citations and indicators on collaborations related to these publications.

In 2018, the University of Montpellier ranked 237th in the world and 5th in France. It moved up 48 places compared to the Leiden 2017 ranking. This is the strongest increase among French universities.

Center for World University Ranking

It is the only world ranking of universities that measures the quality of student education and training, as well as the prestige of university lecturers and researchers and the quality of their work. This ranking takes into account the following criteria:

Quality of education, measured by the number of former students who have won international awards, prizes and medals proportionately to the size of the university (15%)

Alumni employment, measured by the number of alumni who have held CEO positions in the world’s largest companies proportionately to the size of the university (15%)

Quality of the university, measured by the number of academics who have won international awards, prizes and medals (15%)

Research results, measured by the total number of research papers (15%)

Quality of publications, measured by the number of research papers published in leading journals (15%)

Influence, measured by the number of research papers published in highly influential journals (15%)

Times Higher Education (THE)

According to the Times Higher Education (THE) ranking of the world’s best universities published on 26 September 2018, the University of Montpellier is among the top 350 of the 1258 ranked institutions. It has gained 50 places compared to 2017.

“Our establishment has improved compared to last year. The University of Montpellier now occupies a leading position in all international rankings, which is a guarantee of the excellence of our research and training and a lever for the attractiveness and readability of the site”, says Philippe Augé, the President of the University of Montpellier.

This rank also reflects “the first effects of the dynamics that are driven by the I-SITE MUSE project”, says Philippe Augé.

Young Times universities’ rankings lists the world’s best universities that are aged 50 or under. The 2018 ranking includes 250 universities, compared to 200 in 2017. The rankings are based on the same 13 performance indicators as THE World University Rankings’, but the weighting has been adjusted to give less importance to reputation.

In 2018, the University of Montpellier ranked 61st in the world and 9th in France.

242 universities appear in the THE ranking, 23 of which are French. Eight countries are represented: the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and Ireland. The University of Montpellier ranks in 7th place in France ahead of the Panthéon Sorbonne Paris-I, Paris Descartes and Strasbourg universities. The British universities Oxford and Cambridge won the first two places. Sorbonne University comes in the third position.

QS World University Rankings

The 2004 established QS World University Ranking is also one of the most renowned on the global higher education and research scene. It focuses on reputation surveys, which account for 50% of the evaluation. 800 of the most internationally recognized universities are ranked according to 6 variously weighted criteria. Again, the UM ranks well.

General ranking: in 2018, the University of Montpellier ranked 381st in the world. The UM is thus ranked 16th in all schools (including Grandes Ecoles).

Classification by discipline: in the QS Ranking by discipline, the UM is part of the very select club of French universities listed in the Top 200.

“Life sciences and medicine”: 4th French institution and 171st in the world.

“Natural sciences”: 8th French institution and 185th in the world.

US News Best Global Universities

Managed by the Thomson Reuters news agency, US News Best Global Universities brings together the top 750 universities from 57 countries. It mainly focuses its indicators on research performance and reputation.

In 2015, the UM ranked 168th in the world, 6th in France and 3rd in the French provinces.

Classement de Taïwan : NTU ranking

On Tuesday, October 10th, 2017, NTU (Taiwan National University) published its world ranking of universities based on the performance of scientific publications. 20 French institutions are among the top 500 (out of a total of 800), including the University of Montpellier (214th). Taiwan National University also publishes thematic rankings by field and discipline.

The University of Montpellier is therefore ranked 214th in the world and 8th in France.